Critics across the country pick favorite films / In Boston: 'The Departed' takes best picture and best director awards

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, December 12, 2006

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�Undercover cop Billy Costigan (LEONARDO DiCAPRIO) infiltrates Boston�s Irish mob, led by Frank Costello (JACK NICHOLSON), in Warner Bros. Pictures� crime drama �The Departed.� PHOTOGRAPHS TO BE USED SOLELY FOR ADVERTISING, PROMOTION, PUBLICITY OR REVIEWS OF THIS SPECIFIC MOTION PICTURE AND TO REMAIN THE PROPERTY OF THE STUDIO. NOT FOR SALE OR REDISTRIBUTION. less

Critics across the country pick favorite films / In Boston: 'The Departed' takes best picture and best director awards

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Here's a shock: "The Departed," Martin Scorsese's hit about Boston mobsters and the cops they corrupt, was a hit with the Boston Society of Film Critics, too. The thriller was voted best picture, and the society named Scorsese best director and William Monahan's adaptation of a Hong Kong cat-and-mouse tale best screenplay. (The group doesn't distinguish between original and adapted scripts.) Mark Wahlberg, as a hot-blooded police sergeant in the film, was named best supporting actor. Alec Baldwin, who played a stressed-out state police detective, was the runner-up.

"United 93," about the doomed flights on 9/11, came in second for best picture, and its director, Paul Greengrass, was second to Scorsese. Its cast was voted best ensemble. (The cast of "The Departed" came in second.) The screenplay runner-up was Peter Morgan for "The Queen." Michael Sheen, playing Blair, tied Baldwin as runner-up in the supporting actor category.

Helen Mirren, the star of "The Queen," was voted best actress for work in the title role. Her fellow dame, Judi Dench, came in second for her un-damely performance as a schoolteacher infatuated with a co-worker in "Notes on a Scandal."

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Forest Whitaker was voted best actor for his performance as Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland." Ryan Gosling, as the crack-addicted teacher in "Half Nelson," was the runner-up. Gosling's co-star Shareeka Epps won best supporting actress for her performance as a steely middle schooler. She beat runner-up Meryl Streep, who played a domineering magazine editor in "The Devil Wears Prada."

The foreign film winner was Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth," a dark fantasy set in Spain not long after Franco's rise to power. Pedro Almodovar's "Volver," about several generations of Spanish women, came in second. Del Toro's director of photography, Guillermo Navarro, won the cinematography award.

The director of "Half Nelson," Ryan Fleck, also won the new-filmmaker award. "Shut Up & Sing," Barbara Kopple's look at the Dixie Chicks under siege, and Amy Berg's "Deliver Us From Evil," about a pedophile priest and his victims, tied for best documentary. The runner-up was "51 Birch Street," Doug Block's examination of his parents' marriage.

The film critics society also recognized the Boston area's best film series, and best discovered/rediscovered films. The film series winners were: "At Home and Abroad: The Vietnam War on Film/From Both Sides: The Korean War on Film/On All Fronts: World War II on Film," "Centennial Starlets: Anna May Wong and Janet Gaynor," and "Major and Minor Notes: A Billy Wilder Centennial"; and "50 Year of Janus Films," and "Man in the Dunes: Hiroshi Teshigahara."

The discovered/rediscovered film winners were: "Army of Shadows," "The Fallen Idol," "Lucky Star," "The Phantom Carriage" and "The Red Badge of Courage."

The society also bestowed commendations on Ted Barron, who was the Harvard Film Archive's interim curator, and to filmmaker, curator and scholar John Gianvito, for his book "Andrei Tarkovsky: Interviews."